In Person: Tasha Schuh

Tasha Schuh was a happy-go-lucky
and often clumsy kid. Her words, not mine.

Her parents owned the local grocery store. The smaller one. From early
on, Tasha dreamed of becoming an actor.

Then the bottom fell out.

At age 16, while on the set of her high school's production of "The
Wizard of Oz," Tasha took one step back and plummeted through a trap door that
had been left open, breaking her neck and leaving her paralyzed from the neck
down.

It was her worst nightmare. The end of all her hopes and dreams.

So Tasha thought up a whole lifetime of new and better ones.

There are people you meet who awe you with their courage, their
resiliency, their grace and kindness. That's the Unsinkable Ms. Wheelchair, USA.
No "what ifs," not for Tasha. She's too busy publishing her new book (My
Last Step Backward – due out before Christmas). She's too busy speaking to
school children and touring on behalf of her new title.

The best thing of all would be to meet her In Person, because she's
charming. The next is to watch the full interview in which Tasha describes the
accident and its aftermath -- when the
doctor told her parents to "say goodbye." She describes how her best friend and
her boyfriend both deserted her after the paralysis, and how the "miracle of
song." still inspires her.

On the day she took that one last step backward, Tasha Schuh bid
farewell to the stage, and took up her true calling. By the example of her
confidence and grace, she has achieved stardom.

Tasha Schuh, In Person. Only on WQOW News 18. Step by step, we make a
life of it.